After graduating at the Französisches Gymnasium Berlin in 1997, Lara went on studying acting under the management of her father, co-founder of the Theaterwerkstatt Charlottenburg, until 2000. Lara is multilingual. In addition to her native Romanian, she is fluent in German, English, and French.

By sixteen, she was already playing lead roles in various television dramas; since then her career has developed and she has become a respected film actress. Her most famous role to date, which has resulted in international recognition, is Traudl Junge, Adolf Hitler's secretary, in the Academy Award-nominated 2004 film Downfall; following this, Francis Ford Coppola wrote her a letter and gave her a leading role in Youth Without Youth (2007).